FAQs

We want to build a balanced collection to serve all of Edmonton. If you’re interested in a title that’s not in the EPL catalogue, let us know and we’ll consider your request. Suggestions are evaluated according to our Collection Development Policy.

You can request up to five items per month through our online catalogue. Track the progress of your suggestion within the Suggest a Purchase pages (after logging in). Before making your suggestion, check our catalogue to make sure we don't already carry it.

Suggest a new item (library card and PIN required)

Interlibrary Loans (ILL) are the way library materials are made available from one library system to another. If Edmonton Public Library doesn’t own an item or format that you need, our Interlibrary Loan Department will try to get a copy sent from another library system within Alberta or Canada.

Interlibrary loans are lent on the basis of immediate availability. This means that the lending library determines if an item is available to lend at the time the ILL request comes in. EPL ILL requests are not put into the hold list for any item from an outside library system. You can re-request an item a few weeks after being notified that the item was in use by local customers.

Interlibrary Loans are a free service offered to EPL members in good standing. Simply submit your ILL request using Relais D2D or the Interlibrary Loan Request Form. Please be sure the information is specific and accurate. If you are not certain of the title, please ask EPL staff to assist you with the ILL requesting process. Please do not submit more than one request at the same time for an item.

When your Interlibrary Loan arrives at your branch, you will be notified by our automated telephone system unless you have email notification on file. We will telephone you if the materials are for in-library use only.

An EPL borrower who has more than 50 items on hold or fees over $10.00 will not be able to receive their ILL requests.

ME Libraries memberships and The Alberta Library (TAL) memberships are not eligible to use EPL’s ILL service.

Each ILL item is identified by a book band on the front or back cover. You can check an ILL item out with your regular library items at a self-check-out machine. If your item doesn’t scan or appear on your check-out list, please see EPL branch staff at Customer Service.

Please keep the ILL book band on the item and drop it off at any EPL branch or EPL item return drop. Your ILL item will check-in just like a regular EPL item.

A maximum of 1 renewal is permitted.

If an ILL book band has a yellow sticker that says No RENEWAL on this item, it means that renewals are not possible.

Renewals on ILL items depend on the lending library’s policy. (The green check mark just means that we can ask for a renewal, it doesn’t mean we’ll get one).

Please contact EPL’s ILL Department for ALL renewal requests one week before your item is due, as EPL Branch staff are not able to renew ILL materials. EPL cannot renew or extend the due date without asking the owning library’s permission. Once we hear back from the lending library, we will let you know whether you can keep the item for an additional 3 weeks.

Please contact the ILL Department at our email address ILL@epl.ca or call 780-496-7027.

• Books 
• CDs (Alberta libraries only)
• DVDs and Blu-rays (Alberta libraries only)
• Videogames (Alberta libraries only)
• Photocopies of specific magazine articles or newspaper articles
• Photocopies of specific pages/sections from city directories (phone books, Henderson’s Directories, etc.)
• Microfilms/Microfiche (may only be viewed at the Stanley A. Milner Library or the Whitemud Crossing Branch)

There is no way to control the order in which ILL items arrive. As we are one of the busiest ILL departments in all of Canada, we need your help to be as efficient and economical as possible with our Interlibrary Loan requests.

So when requesting multiple seasons or volumes of a series, please consider submitting requests for subsequent volumes or series when you see the current season/volume has shipped. Check My Account on Relais D2D for status updates.

It can take 3-6 weeks* from the date of your request. If you haven’t seen any change in the status of your request for 3-4 weeks, contact the EPL ILL Department to inquire about your ILL request. There are various factors that can impact the amount time that it can take to receive your ILL.

It is not possible to suspend ILL requests if you are going to be away, as you can with holds on EPL material. Please contact ill@epl.ca if you’ve placed a request and are going to be unavailable to pick it up for any length of time. We’re happy to cancel and then replace a request upon your return.

*You can potentially access items from the metro Edmonton area libraries faster by using a ME Libraries membership. This type of transaction is faster because you cut out the middle-men – namely the ILL departments of the libraries involved.

For more information, please speak to a customer service representative at one of our Edmonton Public Library locations.

If you placed your hold through Relais, you can cancel requests on the My Accounts page. Click on the request you would like to cancel, and then click “Cancel” in the bottom right corner.

To change the pick up location for your ILL requests, please contact the ILL Department at our email address ILL@epl.ca or call 780-496-7027.

We ask that you limit your requests to 5 items at one time.

EPL’s ILL department will send you an email or a letter if we are unable to get the item you requested. The reasons could include:

• Restricted circulation: such as reference material, special collection or electronic format (i.e. educational material, technical manuals, historical documents).
• The item is in use by local customers.
• The item was published too recently. Often libraries restrict new items to keep them available for their own customers.
• The item is missing.
• We could not find any library in Canada that owns the item.

The loan period is 3 weeks. The lending library may restrict the material to in-library use only. Interlibrary Loans can occasionally be renewed, depending on the lending library’s policy. See Can I renew my Interlibrary loan item? FAQ information.

• Materials that are already in the EPL collection (including items on order, Blu-ray versions of DVDs EPL already owns, or non-circulating items)
• AV materials outside of Alberta
• Individual or bound issues of magazines
• Electronic resources

Which libraries you search to find an item you’d like to borrow through Interlibrary Loans depends largely on what you’re looking to borrow. The following libraries accessible via Interlibrary Loans offer varying collections:

• Relais D2D: for public and select academic library resources in Alberta.
• ME Libraries: for public library resources across Alberta.
• NEOS: for academic, government and special library resources in Alberta (includes on-site access to databases).

If you’re not an EPL customer, but you have a valid card from another library in Alberta, and are in good standing, you may also be eligible to borrow from EPL’s collection via a TAL Card or ME Libraries.

The fee for a lost or damaged ILL item is $90.

If you have lost or damaged an ILL item, please contact the ILL Department at our email address ILL@epl.ca or call 780-496-7027.